Esther Cepeda | Prescription for reading is healthy for young families

11:01 PM,
Mar. 25, 2013

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Esther Cepeda

A few weeks ago, I approached an apocalyptic-sounding essay in The New York Times titled "The Country That Stopped Reading." Finally, I thought, another pessimist to join me in bemoaning the awful state of reading in America.

The author, David Toscana, was actually writing about Mexico. But he paralleled what I see here in this country. When he lamented that, in Mexico, baseline literacy is up but "the practice of reading an actual book is not," the observation rang true stateside.

Admittedly, it's not all that bad. According to a 2012 survey by the Pew Research Center's Internet & American ...